I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes, then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.
– Ezekiel 25:17
This is in another picture in Ezekiel of God’s wrath and judgment and the word here is vengeance. Great vengeance. Wrathful rebukes. These are the phrases that God uses to describe the effect, the consequence, of sin upon his people.
At the same time, I want to encourage us with this verse much the way the Bible does when you read Revelation and you see God bringing justice and judgment. In Revelation, God is worshiped for his justice. He’s worshiped for his judgments. Even to think about Romans, when God encourages his people to not seek revenge and vengeance, because vengeance belongs to the Lord. To trust that when wronged, God will bring judgment and justice in due time, and this is good news, evil will not have the last words, sin will not have the last word.
Ezekiel 25:17 Teaches Us about the Perfect Justice of God
Justice. The perfect justice of God will have the last word and we can trust in this when wronged, we can trust in this when we see wrong and evil and sin and suffering in the world. At the same time, doesn’t it lead us to praise God for mercy, knowing that we deserve the just judgment due sin. So God, we praise you in light of Ezekiel 25. We join with heaven in worshiping you for your justice, for your great vengeance, for your wrath upon sin. It is right for you to judge sin.
You are perfect in your judgements and we worship you and we trust you. God, as we look around this world and we see sin and evil and wrongdoing and injustice, we praise you that justice is coming. We praise you that your perfect rule and reign are coming and they will have no end. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
Praying for the Unreached People of Nigeria
And even as we pray this, in the same breaths, we praise you for the mercy that comes from your hand, that saves us from the judgment we deserve, from the wrathful rebukes that we warrant with our sin. Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sin, for rising from the grave and for delivering us from the wrathful rebukes that we warrant in our lives. All glory be to your name, God, for your justice and your mercy.
And God, we pray today, we plead on behalf of the Karekare people of Nigeria. This people group, Muslim and Northern Nigeria has hardly any believers at all among them. And even those believers are persecuted. Anybody tries to take the gospel to the Karekare people, will face all kinds of challenges, threats, potentially even lose their lives. God, we pray for the spread of your mercy, to the Karekare people.
Praying for Those Who Don’t Know the Good News of the Gospel
This is a people group that right now is under your wrath. That doesn’t know the good news of your love in Jesus. God, please, please make a way for them to be saved from your judgment for them to receive your mercy and please cause your church from near the Karekare people in Nigeria from far, including our lives, our families, our churches cause us to go to them, to other people groups like them who are under your wrath, that they might receive your mercy. We pray this in light of Ezekiel 25:17, in Jesus’ name, the name of the one who saves us from the wrath to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
